Best of the DNC – U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts waves to the crowd Wednesday. A consumer advocate, she complained that people today "feel like the system is rigged against them."

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Best of the DNC – U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland speaks on day two of the DNC.

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Best of the DNC – Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel claps while listening to Wednesday's speeches. He spoke Tuesday night.

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Best of the DNC – Cuban-American actress and talk show host Cristina Saralegui endorses President Barack Obama on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards walks off stage after her speech Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – Delegates cheer during Wednesday's program.

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Best of the DNC – Audience members wave signs Wednesday in support of the American auto industry.

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Best of the DNC – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – U.S. Rep. Karen Bass of California speaks before delegates on Wednesday night.

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Best of the DNC – U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan speaks on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – A guard stands by as former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt speaks on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – A choir performs on stage during the DNC on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – Two men in vests hold a pile of American flags on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – People pose during the official convention photography during Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention at Time Warner Cable Arena on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – A tri-colored hat sporting the Democratic party's mascot sits on a chair on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – Sikh supporters hold up a sign on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – A woman reacts as Missouri Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, speaks on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, speaks to delegates on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas leads the Pledge of Allegiance as the West Charlotte High School ROTC presents the colors on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – Delegate Gloria Goodwin wears earrings depicting President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – Ruby Gilliam of Ohio salutes the flag on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas waves after leading the Pledge of Allegiance on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – Priscilla Marquez and Evie Walls from Arizona pose in the Google photo booth on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – A police officer stands near golf carts outside the Time Warner Cable Arena on Wednesday.

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Best of the DNC – First lady Michelle Obama wraps up day one of the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Tuesday, September 4.

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Best of the DNC – A sea of signs welcomes the first lady onto the stage Tuesday at the Time Warner Cable Arena.

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Best of the DNC – Delegates listen to Michelle Obama's speech Tuesday. The first lady offered a personal perspective on why her husband should be re-elected.

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Best of the DNC – Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro and his brother, San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro, wave to the audience Tuesday.

Best of the DNC – People hold signs Tuesday that read "Forward" and "Not Back."

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Best of the DNC – Actor-producer Kal Penn speaks on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – People listen to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Rahm Emanuel, who served as President Barack Obama's first chief of staff, addresses the crowd Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius walks onstage Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland takes the podium on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Robert Rios from the Virgin Islands waves a state flag on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Stacey Lihn of Arizona speaks on Tuesday as her husband, Caleb, holds her crying daughter, Emmy, and other daughter, Zoe Madison.

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Best of the DNC – A detail of the prosthetic legs of Tammy Duckworth, an Iraq war veteran who is running for the U.S. House from Illinois, is shown at the podium on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – President of NARAL Pro-Choice America Nancy Keenan speaks on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Audience members wave American flags Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Maria Ciano, who grew up a conservative Republican, addresses the DNC crowd Tuesday

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Best of the DNC – Former Rep. Patrick Kennedy holds his child as he speaks to the media Tuesday. He is a son of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy.

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Best of the DNC – U.S. House candidate Joe Kennedy III of Massachusetts takes the stage Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Joe Kennedy III speaks Tuesday during the Democratic National Convention.

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Best of the DNC – A video tribute to the late Sen. Ted Kennedy is displayed Tuesday in Charlotte.

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Best of the DNC – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi speaks onstage with other female members of Congress on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Pelosi and other female members of Congress applaud on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar sports a cowboy hat while taking the stage Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada speaks to an applauding crowd on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – DNC delegates cheer during Tuesday's program.

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Best of the DNC – Former President Jimmy Carter addresses the convention in a videotaped message.

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Best of the DNC – Former Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine speaks to the convention.

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Best of the DNC – A man from the Texas delegation stands under a campaign sign.

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Best of the DNC – A baby sleeps during Tuesday's speeches.

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Best of the DNC – North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue welcomes the convention to her state.

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Best of the DNC – The Rev. Jesse Jackson attends the convention.

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Best of the DNC – Newark Mayor Cory Booker points to the crowd during his speech on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – A woman cheers during Tuesday's program.

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Best of the DNC – Security personnel looks out at the crowd as U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer speaks on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Hoyer gives a thumbs up.

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Best of the DNC – U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee chairperson, opens Tuesday's program.

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Best of the DNC – The third-grade class from W.R. O'Dell Elementary School in Concord, North Carolina, recites the Pledge of Allegiance.

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Best of the DNC – Dr. Lorrie Rickman Jones of Chicago cries as she watches Tuesday's speakers.

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Best of the DNC – Law enforcement officers prepare to face off with protesters during a march outside the Charlotte Convention Center on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – People in the Wisconsin delegation area sit in front of a digital image of the Lincoln Memorial hours before the start of the convention on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – Newark Mayor Cory Booker, left, laughs with stage manager David Cove during a walk-through on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – A worker checks the stage hours before the start of the convention on Tuesday.

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Best of the DNC – First lady Michelle Obama is interviewed before the start of the convention on Monday, September 3.

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Best of the DNC – Michelle Obama and actor and former Obama administration aide Kal Penn bump fists after a rehearsal for her speech on Monday.

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Best of the DNC – A man prays during a public prayer service at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on Sunday, September 2, ahead of the convention.

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Story highlights

William Bennett: President Obama promised Americans great achievements

Bennett: Obama's surrogates mentioned few of his accomplishments at the DNC

He says Obama has broken many of his campaign promises

Bennett: Democrats will continue the accusation convention for two more days

There are two types of conventions for a party in power, as Newt Gingrich once said: accusation conventions and achievement conventions. Accusation conventions run against their opponents' record; achievement conventions highlight their own.

In 1984 President Ronald Reagan ran an achievement convention. He rarely mentioned Jimmy Carter's record, even though it had been so poor. Instead, his campaign slogan was "Leadership that's working." He ran an uplifting campaign focused on America's turnaround and that it was "Morning in America" again.

After day one of the Democratic National Convention, it seems the Democrats are running a quite different convention.

Julian Castro, mayor of San Antonio and the keynote speaker Tuesday night, pulled no punches in blaming the economic status quo on the Bush years. "Their theory has been tested. It failed. Our economy failed. The middle class paid the price. Your family paid the price. Mitt Romney just doesn't get it," Castro said.

William Bennett

Former governor of Ohio, Ted Strickland, made it a little more personal, "If Mitt was Santa Claus, he would fire the reindeer and outsource the elves," Strickland said in a speech full of attacks on Mitt Romney.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, speaking about young Americans, took it a step further. "Today's Republicans and their nominee for president tell us that those first-graders are on their own — on their own to deal with their poverty," he said. Republicans will leave them with, "an underfunded school, with neighborhood crime and blight, with no access to nutritious food and no place for their mom to cash a paycheck, with a job market that needs skills they don't have, with no way to pay for college."

First lady Michelle Obama closed the night with a moving speech, especially when she thanked and honored the military, but even she made little or no mention of President Obama's achievements. In 2008, a speech like hers would have been appropriate, but when the national debt hit $16 trillion yesterday and another anemic jobs report is expected Friday, her speech seemed out of touch and void of reality.

She said, to rousing applause, "Because for Barack, success isn't about how much money you make, it's about the difference you make in people's lives." It's hard for the American people to notice any difference in their lives when 23 million Americans are unemployed, underemployed, or have given up looking for work. Unemployment has been over 8% for 42 months, and one in six Americans lives in poverty.

Obama promised the American people great achievements. Last night his surrogates mentioned a few accomplishments they see as achievements -- Obamacare, the auto bailout, the end of "don't ask, don't tell," killing Osama bin Laden, and withdrawing the troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. But he promised to cure the "broken politics in Washington," to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term, to not raise taxes on middle-class Americans, to protect Medicare, and to cut the cost of health care. He's broken many of these promises; on others, the verdict is still out.

With few achievements to campaign on, Democrats are sure to continue the accusation convention for the remaining two days. On Wednesday night President Bill Clinton will likely contrast his presidency and President Bush's, with few mentions of the Obama record. It could sound much like his recent ad for Obama in which he says, "The Republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper-income people and go back to deregulation. That's what got us in trouble in the first place."

Sadly, accusations work in politics, and Republicans should not take them lightly. Too few Republicans have distinguished themselves, in policy and rhetoric, from the problems of the Bush years.

The most effective way for Republicans to distance themselves from 2008 is to look to 2013. Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan should emphasize that they are not the previous Republican administration and they have the agenda and record to prove it. An accusation convention, after all, may be all the Democrats have left.